Global Recruiting Trends

LinkedIn report indicates significant changes for function.

Rest of World

Diversity, reinventing the interview process, data and artificial intelligence have emerged as front runners in LinkedIn’s latest Global Recruiting Trends report. The annual report surveyed over 8,800 recruiters and hiring managers from 39 countries to better understand these trends and help recruitment teams prepare for 2018.

The report revealed the most important trend is diversity, inclusion and belonging, with 82 per cent of UK hiring managers saying this is the key issue impacting how they hire. The data shows that companies now see having a diverse workforce directly correlating with improved culture (78 per cent) and a boosted company performance (62 per cent). Despite attention on the subject, many companies are still coming up against barriers, with nearly two-fifths (38 per cent) globally struggling to find diverse candidates to interview and 27 per cent finding it difficult to retain diverse employees.

Traditional job interviews have been a standard for decades, but there is a shift coming. Half (49 per cent) of UK respondents said that changes to interview techniques are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to the future of hiring, making way for a new-age interview process. The biggest problems for talent leaders are assessing a candidate’s soft skills (63 per cent), understanding their weaknesses (57 per cent) and interviewer bias (42 per cent).

In 2018, new tools set to emerge will help to revolutionise the process, including virtual reality assessments (28 per cent), meeting in casual settings (53 per cent) and job auditions (54 per cent). This will make it harder for candidates to embellish skills and means they get to try a job for fit first.

Most professionals in the industry use data in their jobs now, but this is set to accelerate in 2018 with nearly two-fifths (38 per cent) seeing it as one of the most important factors in the hiring process. Over two thirds (64 per cent) are currently making use of data for things like increased retention, evaluating skills and building better offers - but within the next two years, 79 per cent are likely to be using data in their hiring process, suggesting an even greater reliance on it.

The term artificial intelligence is often seen as threatening when it comes to jobs, but for recruiters who can receive hundreds of CVs a day it’s set to become the secret workhouse that helps them do their jobs better. Over a quarter (28 per cent) of UK respondents said AI is the most important trend for 2018, helping them source, screen and nurture candidates - saving time and helping to remove any human bias. While AI can replace some processes, only 14 per cent think it will eliminate the recruiter’s job altogether; building relationships, seeing candidate potential and judging culture fit are amongst the top skills AI is least likely to replace.

Jon Addison, head of talent solutions at LinkedIn UK, commented: “Over the past few years, hiring talent has become a repetitive, and sometimes transactional, process. But there is a shift happening, and these emerging trends are helping to elevate recruitment to a more strategic profession that focuses on the most important and gratifying parts of the job - the human part and thinking critically about how to win the right talent. It’ll be a keen finger on the pulse with these trends that will help recruiters stay alive in our ever-evolving market.”

You can download the full 2018 Global Recruiting Trends report here, and read the blog post on the finding here.